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Russia is as close to a democracy as it will ever get. Looking around the world today, Russia could even be considered a leader of the democratic world! The problem is, there are too many definitions of democracy. I think democracy has to deal with the fact that you have a vote in politics, that doesn't necessarily mean that there has to be a multi-party system. There could be a one-party system but the candidates might have different views, kind of like a political party.

To the one person that says that Putin is the next Hitler, that is a gross over-exaggeration. For one, the KGB is dead, so no one comes bursting down your door if you make a funny about Putin. Russia is also NOT a one-party state, which would mean that there is only one state party and NO opposition. Correct me if I am wrong, but I didn't realize that Rodina, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Russian Democratic Party "Yabloko", the Union of Right Forces, the Agrarian Party of Russia, and the People's Party of the Russian Federation (all parties within the State Duma, with a varying number of seats and varying views on Putin), were illegal parties. I thought there was "No right to assemble", so what does that make these parties? Yes, there is a youth movement, Nashi, but that doesn't make them a group like the Hitler Jugend, in fact, the Nashi even confronted members of the National Bolsheviks (a group of people who are very close to being FASCISTS, the ones that were mentioned in another article). If youth groups are considered to be like "foot-soldiers", then I guess youth groups run by people in North America are considered "foot-soldiers" also (when will those Boy Scouts ever learn?).

As for faucets of society like media or businesses, even if there is a little bit of government control, we can't go and declare that Putin has "total control" like others say. There are other media and business groups that have independence from the government, and they are not scrutinized because of this.

When Boris Yeltsin was President, much of the ethnic strife and conflict arose from the various republics within the Federation. When Putin replaced Yeltsin, many of the conflicts were dealt with. Even after events like bombing in Chechnya, or the Beslan school crisis, the Russian government responded quickly.

Just because a government has more control over goings on within the nation, doesn't mean that it's evil. Examples include the United States and China. China, democratically, could be considered worse than Russia, but all the negatives are shoved aside just because the US does trade with them.

So before we talk about the democracy issue, let's look around the world and deal with less democratic nations first instead of using time dealing with Russia.

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